Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

SOUTH BEND – Curtis Birner, 37 years old, of Peru, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Robert L. Miller, Jr. after being found guilty of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm following a two-day jury trial in January, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Birner was sentenced to 110 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, in October 2021, Birner entered a Peru gas station with a gun concealed in his sweatshirt. He displayed the firearm to another person prompting a call to law enforcement. At the time law enforcement located Birner, he was in a car in the parking lot of a different gas station with a rifle and handgun on his seat along with shotgun in the back seat area. Birner has been convicted of several prior felony offenses, including a federal conviction for felon in possession of a firearm. Any one of his prior felony convictions prohibited Birner from possessing the firearms in this case.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the assistance of the Miami County Sheriff’s Department and the Peru Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jerome W. McKeever and Katelan M. Doyle.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.